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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Week 14: Put Some Birds On It

First of all: Happy Easter everyone! I hope it's lovely. Secondly: Alan's parents are coming in two weeks, and we're SO excited! I love having visitors, and because it's a rarity now that we live in Turkey it's even more special.

I try my best to Martha-it-up in the guest bedroom whenever we have visitors. Our last visitor was my mother who came in February, and I had decorated the room with this lovely heart bunting. But seeing as we are well into spring, I decided it was time for something different. And after squealing over baby chicks and ducklings at all the markets these days, I figured some birds were in order.

I used more scrap fabric, embroidery floss, and some stuffing.

If you're like me, and currently living in a foreign country with no craft stores, it might be challenging to find stuffing. If that's the case, you can use the real scrap left overs that you wouldn't usually bother saving because they are so small, or you could use shredded paper, or cotton balls... or you could do like I did, and cut into a cheap balcony pillow that you never remember to use anyway. I've stuffed a ton of things with batting from this pillow. There's still so much left that I just put the cover back on, and you can't even tell. This method also works well if you're cheap. I'm not judging AT ALL. In fact, I highly recommend being frugal and green whenever possible. "Cheap" and "Earth-friendly" are the new "Rich" and "Modern." In my book at least.

Anyway... Back to the birds.

I cut some shapes out of paper, and then traced the birds onto fabric folded in half.

Two of each.

Then I sewed them together! (My sewing machine is waiting for me in California, so I had to do this all by hand. Not recommended, but they did come out looking kind-of-purposefully-scrappy.)

With my first bird, I started with the right sides together, and sewed most of the way around, and then flipped it right-side out. I was less than impressed. My hand sewing was less than stellar, and it didn't even look like I had tried to hide the stitches by sewing inside out.

Bird 1

So on the second bird I didn't even bother. I just whip stitched all the way and didn't bother to flip it.

When I had about an inch left to sew, I filled it with the stuffing.

And closed it up.

I used the same thread to make some eyes.

And to stitch on some wings.

Quick tip 1: To get the eyes and wings even on both sides, look from the front of the bird, and from the top while you have the needle poking through. looking just from the sides will probably result in some lop-sided-ness.

Quick tip 2: To hid all the knots, don't bother tying off, and cutting until you've FINISHED the bird. When you finish the seam (I try to start and finish in the neck area) just send the needle back in, and out again in the eye spot. Go back and forth from one side to the next, making both eyes at once. Then dive back in, and come out where you want to tack the wing down. Again, do both wings at the same time, going from one side to the next. When you finish, tie off, but don't cut. One more time, send the needle all the way through the bird. Pull it tight, and cut close. When you let go, the end of the thread will bury itself in the middle of the bird, never to be seen again. Ta-Da!